Moving from sleeping in crate to sleeping where he wants

[heathldv]

Hi there!

We're trying to help our 18 month old border terrier transition from sleeping in his crate every night to sleeping where he wants (on the sofa, on his other bed, etc.)

We really benefited from crate training him to start off with and he feels very secure and settles easily in his crate but we don't want to have to 'put him to bed' every night any more. We've tried leaving the crate door open or settling him on his bed after his usual bedtime routine (going out for a pee then settling down with a stuffed Kong bone) but he doesn't settle well. If we leave the crate door open he comes out of his crate and either patrols the kitchen barking at the back door or windows, or he lies by the door to the rest of the house with his head on the floor barking (pretty much constantly) and he can go on for hours like that. We don't like him getting himself worked up like that and can't decide between ourselves whether to just wait it out and leave him and put up with a few nights without much sleep (my preference) or whether there's something better we can do.

At the moment my husband gets so stressed out with his barking that he ends up giving in and we put him back in his crate (where he usually settles quickly and goes to sleep).

He sleeps happily on his bed during the day and it's the place he usually chooses to relax and sleep during the day (over and above the crate) so we're not sure why he won't settle at night there or what we can do to help him transition??

NB - we don't want him sleeping in our bedroom or on our bed - that's just not an option for us.

Would really appreciate any advice on how we can help him!

Thanks,

Heather

[JudyN]

Oh, he's cute!

Personally I would just stick to using the crate, closed. He's happy and secure in there, which he clearly isn't when he's out of it. He may feel vulnerable out of the crate at night, on his own, or may feel he has to 'protect' the whole area he can access. Often it's much easier to fit in with what works for our dog than struggle to impose something that we originally planned.

[Sanna]

I agree with Judy- if it ain't broke don't fix it